Young illegal immigrants can stay in US

Date: June 17 2012

Jon Swaine

Hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants are to be allowed to stay and work in the US after the President, Barack Obama, offered them a partial amnesty.

In a surprise move bound to boost his support among Latino voters in battleground states, Mr Obama said his administration would stop deporting law-abiding, undocumented young adults who were brought to the US as children and would instead grant them work permits.

He said the directive would ''mend our nation's immigration policy to make it more fair, more efficient and more just''.

''These are young people who study in our schools, play in our neighbourhoods, are friends with our kids and pledge allegiance to our flag,'' Mr Obama said. ''They are Americans in their heart, in their minds, in every single way but one: on paper.''

He said it ''is not amnesty, this is not immunity, this is not a path to citizenship, this is not a permanent fix'', but added: ''This is the right thing to do.''

America's Voice, a pro-immigration reform pressure group, described the decision as ''the biggest news on immigration in 25 years''. Up to 800,000 are to be eligible for the scheme, which is open to those aged 30 or under who have been in the country five years, are in education or are military veterans, and have no major convictions.

The Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano, said laws on deportations should not be ''blindly enforced'' on ''productive young people'' who were in the US ''through no fault of their own''.

There are up to 11 million illegal migrants in the US, up to 2 million of whom are young people brought in by their parents, migration groups say.

The order directly ushered in some parts of the DREAM Act, a plan that went further by offering a path to citizenship to young migrants, which was blocked by Republicans in Congress in 2010.

The proposed act, which the Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney pledged to veto, is a priority for many Latino voters, whose ballots could prove decisive in states such as Florida and Nevada in the presidential election in November.

Republicans were furious at being circumvented. Marco Rubio, a Senator for Florida, claimed the order would wreck attempts to comprehensively overhaul illegal immigration. ''By once again ignoring the constitution and going around Congress, this short-term policy will make it harder to find a balanced and responsible long-term one,'' he said.

Viridiana Hernandez, a 21-year-old undocumented immigrant in Arizona, said she planned to apply for a work permit, which can be renewed every two years. ''It is a huge step forward,'' she said.

It was unclear whether immigration authorities could pursue the parents of applicants, who would be too old to apply for permits.

Telegraph, London

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